Friday, November 29, 2024

SojoMail - Reading the Psalms this Thanksgiving

I don’t know about you, but since the election, I’ve found myself turning more and more to the Psalms for perspective, solace, and inspiration.  About a third of the Psalms are of lament — and, at least for me, lament feels fitting.  I love that the Psalms express a full range of human emotions, including anger, grief, disorientation, among other feelings you may have experienced lately.  But while many Psalms start with grief and anger, they almost always end with praise and hope as they claim the very deliverance and solace that God promises to all of us. As Psalms 146 tells us:

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.

It is necessary to grieve, but we cannot get stuck in despair or let it turn into hopelessness. In fact, I believe that getting stuck in despair is one of the things that will embolden the very forces of autocracy and injustice that we see around us.

Instead, let’s take this Thanksgiving to do as the psalmists do: to give thanks to God. We can give thanks for the hard work that contributed to the election being largely fair, free, and safe, no matter how we feel about its outcome. We can give thanks for loved ones, the food on our tables, the bonds of fellowship in our churches and our communities.

We look ahead to the light and hope of Christ’s birth that always comes to the world no matter how dark the current moment or season may feel. And we can commit ourselves to being ambassadors of that hope as we do everything we can to protect those who will be in vulnerable situations in the months and years to come, putting our trust in God to be with us in that work every step of the way.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours,

Rev. Adam Russell Taylor

President

Sojourners

P.S. Giving Tuesday, one of the most important giving days of the year, is Dec. 3. I hope you will show your support for our critical work with a contribution; as a token of our appreciation, you’ll receive a chocolate Advent calendar.

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